Declassified documents reveal secrets of Queen’s Nairobi visit

In December 1971, British High Commissioner to Kenya Sir Eric Norris met with founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta to discuss the proposed visit by Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom, and her consort, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The matriarch of the British monarchy, who passed away last Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, had proposed to make a brief stop of only three hours in Kenya on her way from South East Asia and the Indian Ocean in March 1972. 

According to previously restricted documents related to the trip seen by Sunday Nation this week, at the meeting, the diplomat told Mzee Kenyatta that time was strictly limited and the Queen would not feel it necessary that her visit should have too much formality.

But Mzee Kenyatta rejected this outright, saying there was no way the Queen would be greeted with fewer ceremonies and courtesies than that of any other head of state, according to the documents.

As Sir Norris would later indicate in a confidential correspondence to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dated December 22, 1971, “He (Kenyatta) is impervious to suggestions of cutting down the ceremonial and said that he cannot greet Her Majesty less adequately than he did recently for instance, General Gowan.” 

The Kenyan government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was also pressing strongly for the Queen to spend a night in Nairobi or better still two days, instead of just three hours.

Eventually, after a discussion with Buckingham Palace, the visit was extended from three to four hours. Elaborate ceremonies and courtesies were also to be accommodated at the insistence of Kenya. 

"Confidential"

After the plan of the trip was finalised, Sir Norris sent a brief marked “confidential” to Buckingham Palace in which he advised the palace on the topics the Queen could discuss and those she had to avoid.

For instance, among the issues that had to be avoided were the colonial-era Mau Mau Emergency and Mzee Kenyatta’s detention, tribalism (because it was a divisive factor in Kenya), the Asian problem, and the East African Community (because of the strained relations between member states). 

The diplomat also advised that “always hand things with the right hand. Use of the left hand is still considered impolite in some quarters.”

The issues the Queen could freely discuss with Kenyatta were world affairs (but it was better to avoid “Rhodesia and the Pearce Commission”), gardening because Kenyatta had some interest in it, children and family, even though the diplomat was of the view that “it would be best to mention only his present family unless he mentions the others.”

Apart from the dos and don’ts, the issue of gifts also featured greatly in the correspondence between Nairobi and London.

It is customary for gifts to be exchanged during a state visit as a symbol of goodwill between two countries.

Therefore, before the Queen embarked on her trip, her private secretary, Sir Philip Moore, telegrammed Nairobi, asking the High Commission whether Mzee Kenyatta smoked, adding: “Would a silver cigarette box be a suitable present for the Queen to give?” He had already been told that the Kenyan President was likely to give the Queen a “piece of Africana”.

On March 26, 1972, the Queen, accompanied by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, landed at Embakasi Airport aboard a Royal Air Force VC-10.

It was her first visit to Kenya since 1952 when she ascended to the throne while holidaying in Kenya.

Mzee Kenyatta, for his part, went out of his way to offer unbridled reception to his royal guest, who was met at the airport by an immaculate and well-drilled guard of honour mounted by the Kenya Army, a large array of dancers, and flag-waving schoolchildren.

As Sir Norris would later update the British Secretary of State, Sir Douglas Home, in a document seen by Sunday Nation, “the reception was most impressive and surpassed anything I have seen in my time here.

Several members of the Royal party remarked that there had not been such a warm welcome accorded to the Queen during any other part of this tour of South-East Asia and the Indian Ocean.”

The correspondence was also laced with Cold War undertones, with the British diplomat almost disparaging the Russian ambassador to Kenya who was supposed to be at the airport in his capacity as Dean of Diplomatic Corps but skipped the event. 

“It must have given food for thought to the Russian Ambassador who was required to be at the airport to greet Her Majesty, to see the enthusiasm with which Kenyans of all ranks welcomed the Queen of their former colonialist masters and ‘oppressors’,” he wrote.

From the airport, the motorcade left for State House, Nairobi, snaking its way through the streets, which were lined up by thousands of Kenyans and decorated with Union Jacks and Kenyan flags.

At State House, everything appeared fine except for the food and wine, which, according to archival documents, one diplomat said: “fell some way short of the occasion”. 

Constitutional instruments

In his speech, Mzee Kenyatta recalled the occasion nine years earlier when the Duke of Edinburgh handed him constitutional instruments of Kenya’s Independence on December 12, 1963.

He remarked that it was a great moment in Kenya’s history and that since that time the relationship between Kenya and Britain had remained close although different in character. In her reply, the Queen also spoke of the relationship of the two countries within the Commonwealth, pointing out that if they stayed together, their active friendship would “prosper and flourish in the future”. Recalling her visit to Kenya in 1952, when she received the news of her father’s death, she said the stresses of events that followed had prevented her from returning to Kenya since.

She then thanked Mzee Kenyatta for entertaining his son Prince Charles (now King Charles III) and daughter Princess Anne during their two-week visit to Kenya the previous year.

In a private ceremony, Kenyatta bestowed upon Queen Kenya’s highest honour, Chief of Golden Heart of Kenya.

The Queen left everyone laughing as he placed the golden chain over her head when she quipped: “Don’t knock my hat off!” 

A set of three-legged wooden stools and a gong suspended between two elephant tasks were also presented to her. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was given a hand-worked bow and a quiver of arrows.

The Queen also had gifts for the Kenyan leader, including a golden bowl, which she said was for his roses.

Mzee Kenyatta feigned surprise and said: “Oh, that’s what it is!” She then invested him with the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of Bath.

He was so delighted that he later remarked jokingly to his head of security, Senior Superintendent of Kenya Police Alex Pearson, that he wondered what the political implications would be if he now styled himself “Sir Jomo”. 

Attorney General Charles Njonjo went as far as to ask Bolton, The Standard editor, why he had not headed his editorial about the honour “Sir Jomo Kenyatta”.

However, it was not normal for honorary recipients of classes 1 and 2 of the orders of chivalry to receive the accolade of knighthood and use the address of Sir.

After all the formalities, the president took his guests around his rose garden at State House.

A Full pink bloom was chosen for the Queen and she carried it with her as she walked around.

The royal party then left for the airport where, once more, the reception was tumultuous. After the farewell, the Queen left for England, while the Duke of Edinburgh remained behind for one week to tour Nakuru National Park and Lake Turkana.

The Queen would later make another state visit to Kenya in 1983 under President Daniel Moi.

The writer is a London-based Kenyan researcher and journalist